EvidenceSheet
NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 · PM - Program Management

PM-26 Complaint Management

Implement a process for receiving and responding to complaints, concerns, or questions from individuals about the organizational security and privacy practices that includes: a. Mechanisms that are easy to use and readily accessible by the public; b. All information necessary for successfully filing complaints; c. Tracking mechanisms to ensure all complaints received are reviewed and addressed within organization-defined time period; d. Acknowledgement of receipt of complaints, concerns, or questions from individuals within organization-defined time period; and e. Response to complaints, concerns, or questions from individuals within organization-defined time period.

Source: NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5, PM-26. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 in the compliance library.

Base controls and their enhancements. Which apply follows the baseline you are assessed against (for example FedRAMP Moderate or High, or the low, moderate and high baselines of SP 800-53B). Text in square brackets is a parameter your organisation sets.

5
artefacts
0
held by a system
2
at each review
hard
to go live
Policy repository / GRC workspace
where the evidence lives
teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

none for this control

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Procedures addressing the reviews of complaints · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Test of Organizational processes for complaint management; mechanisms supporting complaint management; tools used by the public to submit complaints, concerns, and questions (e.g., telephone, hotline, email, or web-based forms · Document repository

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • Privacy program plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Procedures addressing complaint management · Policy repository / GRC workspace
  • Complaint documentation · Document repository

First move

No system holds this evidence for you: it is people and documents. Reminders and routing to the owner still save time. Put the document under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a record with reviewer and date.

Common gaps auditors find

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

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PM-25 Minimization of Personally Identifiable Information Used in Testing, Training, and Research · PM-27 Privacy Reporting